"There is no way Harry is going to be sacked," was the Twitter declaration by the QPR owner,Tony Fernandes, on Saturday morning but, quite aside from the issue of Harry Redknapp's job security, this was a result and a performance that did little to suggest that Rangers are destined to claw their way back towards the top two.

It was telling that the Leeds manager, Brian McDermott, left disappointed with a point, while the QPR assistant Kevin Bond felt 1-1 was fair result. Having begun February three points clear in the automatic promotion spots, QPR now trail second-placed Burnley by nine points, albeit with a game in hand.

Four of their next five games are away from Loftus Road and unless there is a stark improvement on the road the play-offs may have to be the limit of their ambitions. "You're heading for a disappointment if you start mapping it all out and trying to think what you've got to do to get to where you want to get," said Bond when asked about the prospect of a top-two finish. "We just need to take it one game at a time."

Taking things one goal at a time has been the problem for much of the campaign – this was the 20th time, in 32 league games, that QPR have failed to score more than once. The January signings of Kevin Doyle and Modibo Maïga were supposed to provide a solution and initially appeared to do so, both scoring in the 3-3 draw with Burnley, but three defeats, this draw and two goals later, the achilles heel looks finally to be hobbling QPR's hopes.

Injuries have undeniably played a part but though Redknapp fairly claimed post-match that six or seven of his first choice side were unavailable, no other side in the Championship could suffer that loss yet still name as strong an XI. What it did lack, though, was dynamism on the flanks. Clint Hill and Aaron Hughes are solid, dependable defenders but not often a factor in the final third.

Leeds, on the other hand, always carried a threat and should have been ahead after 10 minutes. A neat break from Luke Murphy, the best player on the pitch for the opening half-hour, put Ross McCormack through and Richard Dunne's challenge arrived too late. Fortunately for the defender, McCormack's penalty was as poor as the tackle that preceded it, Rob Green dropping low to his left to save.

McCormack, though, made amends four minutes later with a 25-yard free-kick that sailed past Green via a deflection in QPR's crumbling wall. It brought chants of "Sacked in the morning" directed at the home dugout from the Leeds end, but perhaps the visiting support do not count among Fernandes's Twitter followers.

McDermott reckoned that his side could have been two or three up by half-time, but instead the teams went in level. With the interval imminent Jermaine Jenas caught the visiting defence napping from a quick free-kick and the former England midfielder calmly slotted home.

The second half regressed into a stodgy midfield battle with Connor Wickham missing Leeds's two best opportunities and the home side offering little between Armand Traoré's chance 18 seconds after the restart and Hill's thumping volley that was ruled out for offside in injury time.

Leeds have lost once in their past six games and a late run into the play-offs is not out of the question. For McDermott, and indeed for the club as whole, a little stability is target enough. "We're waiting to see what happens with the takeover," he said. "But it's a calmer place, there's no doubt about that. And it needs to be."